More than 20 million people used a news website or app in February – Ipsos iris data

News

More than 20 million people used a news website or app in February – Ipsos iris data

Australians spend an average of 3.5 hours online per day

21 March 2023 – More than 20 million (20.3 million) people used a news website or app in February, according to Ipsos iris, Australia’s new digital audience measurement currency endorsed by the IAB Australia.

This is an increase over January of 0.2%. In addition, people are spending more than five hours per month in February, or 18 minutes a day, consuming news content. People aged between 55-64 spent the most time consuming news content at more than eight hours during February.

The News category includes audience and time spent online on both general news and broader news content including weather, sport, lifestyle, entertainment, and business news.

Ipsos iris, which launched earlier this month, provides accurate data about the 21 million Australians aged 14+ who access a wide variety of digital content and services across smartphone, PC/laptop and tablet devices.

The February data also found that Australians spend an average of 3.5 hours per day, or 94 hours a month online on a PC/laptop, smartphone, or tablet device, which was a decline of 12% from January.

The most consumed online categories by total audience size in February include social networking (20.9 million) and search (20.9 million), technology (20.8 million), retail & commerce (almost 20.6 million) and entertainment (20.5 million) and news (20.3 million).

General news is the most popular news sub-category reaching 19.1 million Australians in February and weather had the highest time spent with almost 3 hours per person. The reporting of news brands also includes the audience of media owner content distributed on platforms such as Google AMP, Facebook, and Apple News.

The Ipsos iris data also found that while people aged between 25-39 were the largest cohort online, people aged between 55-64 spent the most time online in February.

Ipsos iris fast food and delivery insights

Almost 13.5 million people have used fast food and delivery websites and apps in the last month, down -0.3% compared to January.

The biggest growth in using fast food and delivery sites and apps is among males aged 14-24 at almost 1.4 million, compared to almost 1.3 million women in the same age group. This age group’s growth climbed 9% month on month.

Australian mothers are the biggest users of the fast food and delivery websites and apps in February at 4 million, an increase of 3% compared to January.

Notes for editors:

  • Ipsos iris is an independent source of truth for the media industry providing a level playing field for comparison of audience reach and characteristics and supporting the $14.2 billion Australian online advertising market*.
  • Ipsos iris provides accuracy in solving cross-device deduplication, the biggest challenge in measuring online audiences, using a single-source multi-device panel measuring activity on 8,000 smartphone, PC, laptop and tablet devices. Smartphones led digital consumption with 19.2 million Australians spending on average 82 hours online. In addition, 14.1 million Australians accessed PC/laptops spending an average of 32 minutes online and 3.6 million were on tablets spending on average 61 hours online.
  • Ipsos iris provides accurate data about the number of people who visit the content of digital publishers and platforms, along with the frequency of visits and time spent by tracking digital audience behaviour across desktop/laptop, smartphone, and tablets.  It uses a hybrid methodology that combines metered data from a high quality, nationally representative, single-source passive panel with site-centric census measurement via media owner tagging.
  • Later this year CTV audience currency integration from a data partnership with OzTAM will provide total unduplicated digital audience currency data for CTV, smartphones, tablets, and computers.
  • Ipsos iris is fully privacy compliant and cross-media ready and will continue to evolve with a roadmap of enhancements over 2023 and beyond. It will also be adaptable to changing requirements as the industry develops in future years.
  • The launch of Ipsos iris is the culmination of extensive work by the IAB and its Measurement Council that commenced in early 2021 with a strategic review of industry requirements. Ipsos was awarded the IAB’s endorsement, having best met the standards on criteria across all areas of product along with criteria for operations and a future roadmap.
  • Further information can be found at: https://iris-au.ipsos.com/

*Source: IAB Australia Online Advertising Expenditure Report (OAER CY2022) prepared by PwC Australia.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Rochelle Burbury | Third Avenue Consulting

0408 774 577 | rochelle@thirdavenue.com.au